Man, I hate the book proposal stage. It’s so mushy! My writer friend in the woods with me today is in the final throes of her manuscript, and I have manuscript envy over here.

Thanks for those comments on my previous post (anniegirl, Renee) — you gave me a push to give the outline thing a try today. And I have to say, it seemed far less anxiety inducing to work on an outline than it did to face a blank screen and start pushing words around on the page. Which is what I generally do, and which ends up taking me AGES.

As for my next steps, I like Renee’s approach, which she describes as follows:

The key thing about that outline for me is that I use the outline to make a VERY detailed To-Do list. That is the list that I then work from in completing the work — items on it might be as difficult/conceptual as “Restructure introduction to add in the literature on social movements….” or as simple as “Add citation to McClurg and Mueller…”

At the end of any work period, I decide on two or three things on the to-do list that I will work on the next day/work period — so I can percolate on the conceptual tasks I’ve set for myself, and then I warm up on the work by doing the easier/simpler tasks.

I’m gonna give it a try. Anyone got an answer to Renee’s question (see comments, previous post), about deviating from the outline once you’ve got it? How strictly do you outliners out there hold yourselves to it? Inquiring minds wanna know 🙂